I am writing to publicly recognize and thank many of the restaurants in Malibu for their donations of a lunch or dinner for two as holiday gifts to the teachers at Webster School. This is the seventh year that I have asked for these gifts and the response has been extremely gratifying. The restaurants participating this year were: Allegria, BeauRivage, Coogie’s, Duke’s Malibu, Gladstone’s, Godmother, Granita, The Gray Whale, Guido’s, John’s Garden, Malibu Inn, Marmalade, Michael’s (3), Paradise Cove Beach Cafe (2), Pier View, Reel Inn, Saddle Peak Lodge (2), Taverna Tony and Tutto Bene.

It is tremendously gratifying for our teachers to be recognized by the community in this way. Many businesses and individuals make special efforts to help others, especially children, during the holidays. I applaud each and every person who finds time or money to help those in need. Teachers make a career of helping children and their families, and they do this with great skill, energy and dedication every day in the Malibu schools and in schools throughout our country. Every teacher I know is richly deserving of a nice meal at one of the fine restaurants in Malibu, and I am very proud to see this becoming an annual tradition in our community.

The schools in Malibu are consistently supported by this community in many ways throughout the year. We strongly feel that the families with children in our schools and others throughout Malibu value and appreciate our work. Our students benefit directly every day from this support and involvement. The morale of our staff is also affected in a very positive way. I know I speak for all of us at Webster when I say that we feel fortunate to work in this community and privileged to teach your children. Happy New Year to all and many, many thanks.

Phil Cott, principal

Webster Elementary School

Neither rain, nor mud, nor rocks on the road could stay his couriers from their appointed rounds, said Lee Gustafson, who retired last Thursday after 18 years as Malibu’s postmaster.

“We only missed delivering the mail one day, and that was November 4, 1993, the second day of the Topanga-Malibu fire,” he said. “We did get the station open that day.”

He has been through the fires of 1983, 1985, 1993 and 1996, not to mention dozens of storms, floods, mud flows, rock slides, road closures and other disasters endemic to Malibu. Just getting to work has often been a challenge.

Still, he’s found time to write — he co-authored two books on the history and development of railroad depots in California. “I will now have time to complete the third and final volume,” he said. “I also plan to spend more time traveling the United States and visiting Europe.”

Married with two children, Gustafson resides in Thousand Oaks. His hobby, buying and selling (on the Internet) antiques and collectibles pertaining to American transportation, will now become a full-time business.

During his tenure as Malibu’s postmaster, he has received various awards, mainly for customer service, and outstanding merit ratings and superior achievement awards. He also received an award for mail delivery during the civil unrest in Southern California.

Gustafson began his postal career in 1963 in Culver City as a distribution clerk, switching to letter carrier the next year. He entered the ranks of management in 1972 and was promoted to manager of Gateway Station, Culver City, in 1977, then to manager of Customer Services in 1978. He was officer-In-charge of the Gardena Post Office in 1981, then appointed as postmaster of Malibu Nov. 30, 1981. He served in the U. S. Army from 1965 to1967.

During his term in Malibu, mail service has expanded considerably with the opening of two post office box units, at Carbon Beach in 1982 and Zuma Beach in 1984, the addition of Colony Annex in 1986, the opening of the new Point Dume Station on Heathercliff Road in 1992 and the relocation of the Colony window and box facilities to the Malibu Colony Plaza in January 1992.

“I’m especially proud of the 77 employees of the Malibu Post Office and of their ability to go above and beyond the call of duty to safely distribute, process, deliver and dispatch the mails of the Malibu community during the various crises that Malibu has had to endure.”

I just wanted to take this time to write to you, and to thank the Malibu community for all of its hard work and caring and love this holiday season, to help the homeless and at-risk children and families we care for throughout the year.

Christmas was made brighter for L.A.’s homeless and at-risk children by friends and volunteers of the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation, who along with Malibu friends John and Ellen Poyer, Joe and Pam Wirht, the Malibu Kiwanis Club, Bob and Nancy Salka, Dynasty Fashions and Topson-Downs of California (and their wonderful co-workers), held amazing holiday parties at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School. We were thrilled to have all of these friends as both sponsors and very energetic volunteers. Alexandria May of Alexandria’s Topiaries sponsored the art project by making beautiful holiday frames for the children’s Polaroids with Santa, Lisa and Bill Curtis of Malibu bought wonderful gifts for special Adopt-A-Family children, and some very special Angels sponsored families through our Adopt-A-Family Program. DreamWorks’ employees, local Malibu families, Pastor Eric Schaeffer of Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church and his youth group also volunteered. Additional parties were sponsored by CLF friends from Tarzana the Weinsteins and Mike Rosen of California Supply, and the Michaels Family of Kayo of California.

Mrs. Abrahams’ fourth-grade class at Webster adopted five families this Christmas, buying them every single request on their list! The children were a huge help this Christmas to our Adopt-A-Family Program. Deborah Granoff’s class at Webster School made beautiful personalized Christmas cards for the gift bags and a beautiful poster for the children.

Over 600 children were treated to these spectacular Holiday events, complete with beautiful decorations, Santa Claus himself, a live deejay and raffles, and a personalized gift bag, filled with seven to eight wrapped gifts of new clothes, new shoes, candy and toys. The children and families of Juan Cabrillo School, Malibu High, Point Dume Elementary School, Children’s Creative Workshop, Webster School, Wonder Years Daycare and friends at Toy Crazy ran wonderful toy drives that were fantastic. The whole community rallied together, including 98% Angel, who donated some lovely children’s clothes, and Bernard at Clarisse Beauty, who donated bags full of women’s toiletries and cosmetics, to volunteer their efforts to make this the best holiday ever for these very deserving children, who would not have received any gifts this Christmas Day. A wonderful time was had by all, and over 7,000 gifts were collected.

On Christmas Day, volunteers and friends of the CLF gathered at the Venice Pavilion to give out brand new clothing, toys, shoes and toiletries. The clothing was donated by Topson-Downs and Kayo of California, shoes by Reebok, Int’l., toiletries by Aware Products and hair accessories by Scunci, and a U-Haul filled with toys donated by Aardman Films, Disney, DreamWorks, Hasbro, Mattel and Warner Brothers. DreamWorks volunteers and Malibu locals Walter and Ellen Young also participated. Gerry Engel, Sandra Black and Rosalie Fagelson from Supercare Drugs, who also generously donated money, volunteered their time as well. It was a wonderful day, where hundreds of homeless children and their families gathered to enjoy their gifts from us, and a free meal from the Bible Tabernacle Mission.

Other wonderful friends who were a huge help and support this season were Malibuites Norm and Shirlee Klein, and official photographer Lois Globnik; Mark Kramer, Tamara Montana and family, Janine McEuen, Janna Pekkanen, David Silverstein, Marcy Smith and family, Stacey Thompson and family, and wonderful actors John and Cathy Cygan and Jack McGee. KTLA Channel 5 Charities made a wonderful holiday donation, as did several other very loving angels.

We thank you all for your great love and support, and for making our work such a joy this holiday season. We couldn’t have done it without you! Our very special thanks goes out to all of our wonderful sponsors, who continue to sponsor these lovely holiday parties each year. I hope the year 2000 brings you all the joy, happiness and prosperity that you deserve.

You may call the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation at 310.457.6166 if you are interested in adopting a homeless family for the New Year.

Our sincerest gratitude, thanks and love,

Maria D’Angelo, president

The Children’s Lifesaving Foundation

We all want to believe that the game is fair. That the system is not rigged. That the same laws apply to all of us, and no one gets a free pass because they’re celebrated, or famous or rich or better connected.

At the same time, most of us don’t really believe it. Even if we believe the game isn’t totally rigged, most of us instinctively feel the level playing field we’ve heard about may definitely be tilted.

We’re pragmatic. We’ve all had the experience of trying to get a seat in a hot Beverly Hills restaurant, on a Saturday night, without a movie doing big box office. Truly humbling.

Truth be told, most of us who live here would certainly try to tilt that playing field in our own favor if we wanted something. To that end, we lobby the City Council and the Planning Commission to find in our favor, or find some rationale as to why we’re really an exception to the rule.

But fundamentally, we also want to think there are some basic rules in place and that they’re applied uniformly. The one thing guaranteed to make us nuts is the thought that there are special rules for special people and the rest of us suckers are just that, suckers!

On Monday, we’re going to get a primo test of whether there are special rules for special people and how much that playing field really is tilted. On Monday, Mr. James Brolin and Mrs. James Brolin, aka Barbra Streisand, are before the City Council because some of their neighbors have appealed the Planning Commission’s decision to allow them to tear down an older, smaller house and replace it with a newer, larger house.

The Brolins, who live on Point Dume, want to tear down a 3,463-square-foot, single-family home with a 735-square-foot garage and replace it with a new, two-story, 6,795-square-foot, single-family home with a detached garage, a 4,092-square-foot, main structure basement and another 399-square-foot basement. Their new construction will be in the neighborhood of 11,000 square feet total.

What make this an interest test of the system is something we call the application of the “neighborhood standard.” In the past, we’ve had a few people build monster houses, and out of that utter and reasonable dismay, and the desire to prevent mansionization, we created the neighborhood standard rule. The rule is applied, generally, by taking the measure of all homes within 500 feet of where the new house is to be built, giving a neighborhood standard in terms of square footage.

Were that rule followed in the case of the Brolins, it wouldn’t be anything close to an 11,000-square-foot house. I’ve been told using the standard within 500 feet would have meant more like a 2,700-square-foot house.

So the Planning Commission came up with a whole new definition of neighborhood. Apparently, the Brolins’ neighborhood does not include their neighbors across the street because those are smaller houses, which would mean the neighborhood standard would be a smaller house. Instead, the commission defined that neighborhood as all the houses on the bluffside, facing the ocean. Then, the commission went right around the outside of Point Dume and counted all the big houses and ignored many of the smaller houses across the street. Even then, I’ve been told, the average is more like 6,000 square feet.

Now, I can’t really fault the Brolins. They want a bigger house, and if the planning director and the Planning Commission are prepared to roll over, why shouldn’t the Brolins try.

But I can fault a planning director who invents new rules, or creates an exception so large I could drive a truck through it, and supposedly “No Growth” planning commissioners who somehow seems to find it within in their power to turn down applications for the flimsiest of reasons, unless of course it happens to be their friends. And she certainly is one of their friends and very tight with Gil Segel, and that means Carolyn Van Horn and also Walt Keller.

So what will the council do Monday? Perhaps the Brolins will stand up and eloquently explain and defend their position and the council will agree. Perhaps my skepticism is unjustified and is really sort of a reverse snobbery. So tune in Monday and hear what they have to say, and how the planning director and the Planning Commission could decide how a 500-foot radius could somehow be construed to mean homes on a bluff, in some cases more than a mile away.

I have been a member of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations since 1981. In 1992, I was elected president of the commission and I served in that capacity for one year, and for the last 18 years on the commission my record for equal rights for all speaks for itself.

At its Nov. 15 meeting, only eight of the 15 commission members were present when the vote was taken to recommend that the board oppose Proposition 22, the “Limit on Marriage Initiative.” There is one vacancy on the commission. And for the record, the vote was 5 to 3 to go on record to oppose this initiative.

Although I write this letter as a private citizen, I am also authorized to speak on behalf of the other two commissioners who voted the same way that I did.

For the record, it is my feeling that the system should establish a legitimate process in order to give everyone living in a domestic partnership capacity the right of survivorship and insurance protection. I am puzzled as to how anybody could imply that a proposition that simply states that only the marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California causes discrimination against anyone. There is nothing homophobic about desiring to maintain traditional family values. I also do not believe that the presence on the ballot of Proposition 22 has proven to be extremely divisive and provocative of intolerance discrimination and hostility. And I know many people that feel the way I do and say nothing in order to be politically correct.

I noted that on the list of people against Proposition 22 was the name of Vice President Gore, but he also stated that the definition of marriage should not be changed to include a homosexual union.

Political correctness aside, for religious and moral reasons I cannot deem same sex marriage acceptable and for all those reasons I did vote at the meeting of the Human Relations Commission on November 15 against the motion. And I intend to vote for Proposition 22 at the next election.

And in closing let me remind everyone that the downfall of the Roman Empire was when they started to lose their morality.

Vito Cannella